Modern communication networks have very large capacity, can provide real time delivery of information over diverse routes, but are highly complex in their design. Because of the complexity in the design and the many trade offs and choices for installation of a communication line through such a network, the installation of a communication line between two end points for a customer can take four to five months. The installation involves thousands of inter-related tasks and requires many choices to be made. Once the customer's request for service has been received, an optimal route must be found. All the network elements along the route must be available. Available elements must be connectable to make up the circuit design to deliver the private line. Right now there are most likely months between the time the customer places an order for network service and the time of actual delivery of that service. This delay results in customer dissatisfaction with the network provider, and also costs the network provider lost revenue during the interval of time a communication line is being installed.
To date, the tasks performed to install a private line have been performed manually with some few exceptions for portions of the tasks. For example, computing systems have been brought to bear on the problem of finding the optimal route. However, computing systems yield results only as good as the data they work with, and the actual field inventory often differs from the stored field inventory in the computing system. What is available in the computer records may not in fact be available in the field. Further, computing systems without adequate data about the network may be programmed to make assumptions in creating a route for installation of a private line. These assumptions may not be valid when it is time to connect network elements together to complete the communication circuit design. Finally, what appears to be a valid design on the engineer's drafting board may contain network elements in the field that are not consistent with the computer information or the engineer's information and therefore are not connectable.
Further, performance of these installation tasks often results in design trade-off choices that may affect the service to the customer and thus require repeated consultation with the customer as the communication line is built. In the past the customer has placed a request for service and waited days to hear whether the network provider had the capacity to provide the service. In the past the customer has placed a reservation for a service order and waited weeks for confirmation of the reservation. In the past the customer has submitted a service order for installation of the service and waited months for delivery of the service.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.